The Supreme Court judgment on the Novartis-Glivec case has gone beyond technical and legal issues and linked the question of patenting with net benefits to society. What the judgment says and what it implies has significance for patent regimes in developing countries

The Supreme Court decision denying Novartis a patent for the cancer drug imanitib has been hailed as a victory for the affordable medicines movement. But it won’t make much difference if doctors continue to prescribe expensive branded drugs, patients believe that only expensive drugs work, and the government does little to support the manufacture of affordable medicines

The draft National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy 2011 brings 348 essential drugs under price control, but what about non-essential drugs, which are the bulk of those sold and which can be priced several times higher than their manufacturing cost, asks S Srinivasan

The new National Vaccine Policy Draft 2011openly favours industry. It provides for advance market commitments for new vaccines, whereby government guarantees a market for the vaccine before it is tested and even if it is not efficacious. Should our vaccine policy focus on the health of our children, or the viability of the vaccine industry?

As drug companies flock to India to conduct drug trials on the cheap, they capitalise on a combination of money-hungry researchers, a vulnerable population and a lax regulatory system. This is fertile ground for ethical violations that threaten the health and rights of poor Indians. Read Ankur Paliwal’s article in Down To Earth

India is a global exporter of vaccines but 50% of our children under one are not completely immunised. The government has ordered the reopening of vaccine-manufacturing PSUs, but a strategic plan on consistently meeting India's basic vaccine needs is still not clear. Venkat Srinivasan tells the story of India’s vaccine production programme, a story of politics, dishonesty and misguided priorities

The government’s move to scale up and subsidise community health insurance schemes while doing nothing to improve healthcare service delivery is a flawed strategy. It’s like getting PDS shops to distribute mango kernels and mahua seeds as drought relief instead of foodgrains since the poor survive on these anyway, says Oommen C Kurian

In a country where 26% of participants are enrolling for clinical trials just so that they get free or quality healthcare, it is dangerous to allow contract research organisations easy access to patient databases and to offer medicos payment for recruiting patients in trials, says Sandhya Srinivasan

Our panicky leaders have adopted the very strategy that the WHO warned against in dealing with the H1N1 outbreak, says leading virologist Dr T Jacob John, pointing out in this exclusive article for Infochange how government should have handled the pandemic

The media and the government health services have unwittingly collaborated to create and escalate public alarm over the H1N1 influenza outbreak in India. Sandhya Srinivasan points out what their response to this public health crisis should have been

The swine flu pandemic is relatively mild in India so far, but in India and elsewhere what governments must do to prevent the occurrence of such outbreaks is strengthen public health systems, regulate corporate livestock farming, and ensure access to essential drugs and vaccines

The recent changes in the Indian government’s drug policy for the treatment of the deadly falciparum malaria are illogical and harmful. Sandhya Srinivasan analyses the short-sighted response to this public health crisis

India marked World Malaria Day (April 25) with over 1 million cases of the disease in 2008, half of them of the dangerous P falciparum strain. Since this is largely due to unplanned urban growth and the growing number of urban poor, urban planning that is done keeping community needs in mind would go a long way in checking the spread of malaria

A startling new study that surveyed 700,000 people in Raigad and Mumbai suggests that the burden of leprosy could be three to nine times the official figures. Obviously, people are not being detected and treated in time. Are the misguided policies of the National Leprosy Elimination Programme leading to a public health failure?

Despite launching the largest ever mass immunisation campaign against polio in February 2003, targeting 165 million children, the battle against polio has not been won. To understand the causes of the repeated occurrence, we need to understand the profile of the wild polio virus

When India passed the Transplantation of Human Organs Act banning trade in organs, those who had agitated for the law may have thought they had won the battle. Instead the kidney trade has only flourished. The public is being told that the only way to put a stop to the kidney trade by people such as Amit Kumar, who has been running a global trade in organs since 1994, is to regulate the market for human organs

Following the NFHS survey, the HIV numbers game has begun again. The point is that regardless of the actual number of people infected in India, there can be no complacency or drop in political and societal commitment towards HIV intervention and the rights of positive people

Binayak Sen, who was arrested in Chhattisgarh in May, is one of very few medical practitioners in India who see their role as not just saving individual lives but examining and highlighting the social context of disease. Is it just to arrest a doctor who is acting according to his conscience?

As the tussle between proponents of sex education in schools and conservatives who wish to ban it continues, Neha Madhiwalla writes that the evidence of the benefits of sex education is not very convincing

With growing calls for the reintroduction of DDT to fight the resurgence of malaria worldwide, we must not forget the reasons why many countries have banned this toxic substance and other dangerous chemicals that cause cancers and other persistent diseases that impair health and possibly prove fatal

Denis Broun, country representative of UNAIDS, defends a recently-published report by his organisation that states that over 4 lakh AIDS-related deaths occurred in India in 2005 -- the highest in the world

The outbreak of bird flu in Nandurbar district, Maharashtra, is particularly worrisome for a country like India, which has a weak public health system and an annual per capita public health expenditure of just Rs 200

The medical profession has consistently resisted the jurisdiction of the courts. A recent Supreme Court judgment puts medical professionals in India above the criminal law of the land. But surely it is hazardous to start carving out exceptions to the uniform applicability of criminal law, asks Supreme Court advocate Rakesh Shukla

The Crocin you buy from your local drugstore at 80-90 paise per tablet costs just 15 paise to make. Dr Anant Phadke delves into the various forms of profiteering in the pharmaceutical sector and suggests ways to oppose it

In December 2003, the Indian government declared a strong policy-cum-programme commitment to provide free ARV treatment to 100,000 AIDS patients. But important issues related to the creation of a conducive atmosphere for AIDS patients, confidentiality and the creation of a health infrastructure within the public health system have still to be addressed

There has been a legitimate emergence of sexual minorities in India over the last decade. But even as transsexuals or sex workers exult in the opportunity to be heard and seen in mainstream society, we must realise that this is just one small evolutionary step towards raising the self-esteem of marginalised groups

Rajasthan is a good case study of the links between international finance, ecological imbalance and health problems. The resurgence of malaria in this previously non-endemic area is the ecological and socio-economic consequence of the policies advocated by the Bretton Woods institutions

Protection of health personnel and patients from HIV transmission is difficult in a healthcare setting in which nurses may be permitted only two pairs of gloves a day and needles are reused after a perfunctory wash. The answer is not special precautions for HIV-positive patients, but universal precautions for all health workers who come into contact with blood and body fluids

What can the National AIDS Control Programme achieve in the absence of integration of HIV-related services into the health system as a whole? The second in a series assessing the HIV/AIDS situation in India